1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein disclosed relates generally to the field of display advertising and sales of products displayed. More particularly it relates to a system whereby a video, movie, commercial, or other remotely viewable entertainment or advertising video of moving video, functions as an advertisement in a manner adapted to catch the user's attention for a product or service by highlighting thereof to the attention of the viewing user.
2. Prior Art
The marketing of products through television advertisements and internet video and other streaming video to viewers, has become ever more prevalent with the maturing internet and the increasing number of internet and broadcast media channels. This visual marketing has increased exponentially with the advent of smartphones, pad computers, and wireless connections both through WiFi and cellular networks.
In broadcast media as well as streaming media over the internet, advertisements are conventionally broadcast during intermissions of a broadcast TV show or movie. Additionally advertisements are viewable by users over the Internet on the video screens of computers, as well as on television screens of users having Digital Video Recorders and the like.
While catalogs and static-photo advertising such as billboards, catalog pages, and display ads online, have been employed modernly to distribute knowledge about product lines and for advertising, the use of videos with commercials having moving actors or stories, is not widely employed for much but making users aware of certain products being advanced by the person or company providing the video.
For instance, video commercials may employ actors to show a product or service and invite users to call or visit retailers thereof. Movies and short entertainment videos have been known to purposely dress actors, or supply actors, with particular products to be viewed by movie goers and viewers of video to entice customers to seek them out subsequent to viewing the movie or video. In one noted instance the sales of, “Reese's Pieces” a candy, increased dramatically when shown in the movie “ET.” Viewers of the movie sought out the product in stores subsequent to leaving the theaters. The company selling the candy paid a fee for placement of the candy in the movie.
The same is currently true for most products displayed in an advertisement video on television or the internet, as well as in feature films or in television programs and series. Viewers seeing a product or service, once made so aware of it, will generally seek out such products and services in stores or online should they find them attractive when made aware initially. Of course there is a lag-time between the viewer seeing their favorite athlete drink a specific drink, or use specific equipment, or wear particular clothing for example.
Of course the viewer's interest in a product or service seen in a movie or other video or other displayed media, but not being advertised, is passive. This is because the communicated media is not communicated with the intention to entice the viewer of a particular movie or video where a favorite actor may have been wearing designer dress or carrying a particular purse. It is this passive interest and the subsequent lag time in seeking the product or service after the viewer has viewed show or video, which can cause loss of interest, or just cause the user to forget their interest until the are reminded again upon viewing the item of interest.
In many cases viewers of video and movies are inattentive or not particularly ascertaining the presence of a particular product in the viewed frame. The viewer may be wrapped up on the plot of the video, or for instance may be talking on the phone while viewing and have divided attention. Thus, even products deliberately placed on actors and in scenes of a video or movie or other motion picture or television show, can easily not be discerned by potential buyers of such products as they are a small part of the moving depiction on the viewed screen, and the attention of the viewer may be distracted.
As such their exists a need for a method of depicting products in moving depictions on video displays of media such as television, computer screens, smartphones, and other media playing devices having display screens, which will immediately capture the attention of potential buyers who may be inattentive, or may not see the product of interest amongst the rest of the items and people depicted on the screen. Such a system should not interrupt the media such as a movie or video program being displayed to the user for periods of time where the viewer becomes irritated. However, such a system should employ the video display of the media itself, to deliberately draw the interest of a viewer momentarily, as a means to cause the viewer to become cognizant of a product or service being portrayed in the video display, for the purposes of soliciting interest or sales of the product or an interest in a service or the like.
Such a system should be user friendly and allow even the most inexperienced computer-user, to identify and order products and services to which their attention is momentarily drawn, in shown in a movie, tv show, video, commercial, or internet communicated video program.
Still further, such a service should be easily provided to the producers of such movies, videos, commercials, and other such viewed media, through an interface that will allow the user or viewer of the products and services to which they have become cognizant, to order or seek more information therefor.
Such a system should be configured to allow for employment of the user interest highlighting method, during the communication of videos and movies and advertisements, to users across a network such as the internet, whether run from a remote server or the user's computer.
With respect to the above, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the method for advertising and sales using media herein in detail or in general, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of employment and to the arrangement of the components or the steps set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The various apparatus and methods of the herein disclosed invention for providing a means to cause a user to become cognizant of products and services in media for advertising and sales purposes, is capable of other embodiments, and of being practiced and carried out in various ways, all of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art once the information herein is reviewed.
Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for other media enhancement employed as a means for causing a viewer to become cognizant of a product or service for advertising and sales thereof. It is important, therefore, that the embodiments, objects and claims herein, be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.